We got a taxi from our apartment to the hotel, and we could tell we were on the right track by looking at the road signs.
It cracked us up to see the universal sign for airport next to the universal sign for Disney. It was a quick and easy ride to the hotel, and they were happy to store our luggage until check in time. We even got a Mickey sighting. They have a breakfast with Mickey at the hotel that was just finishing up when we got there. Vivian was happy to get her picture with Mickey. Elena, not so much.
Elena was in awe, but it was the terrified kind of awe. She's still talking, almost a month later, about how she saw Mickey and he wanted to give her a high five. She did not high five back, and instead hid in my shoulder, but that big Mickey made an impression. Elena was much more comfortable with the statue of Mickey near the elevators and hung out with him instead.
After we dropped our stuff, we went outside to catch the shuttle to the park. Everything was decorated for Halloween, including the hotel.
The shuttle dropped us at the main entrance point, but it was still quite a haul from there to the actual park.
We had gotten a two days for the price of one pass ahead of time and stood in a short line to redeem our voucher for actual tickets. Then, it was through the turnstiles and into the Halloween version of Hong Kong Disneyland.
Vivian really wanted to ride the Grizzly Gulch coaster, and I really wanted to see the Lion King show, so we headed that direction first. When we walked by the Lion King theater, we saw a show was about to start, so we made that our first stop. It turned out to be a great, quick version of the Lion King story. Elena loved the animals, so it was fun for everyone.
After the Lion King, Vivian and her friends got their roller coaster ride, plus some fun photo ops.
The park was really not that crowded, and what lines there were moved quickly. It was still warm though, so we went looking for air conditioning. We found the Mystic Manor
which is a ride where you sit in a vehicle that moves without tracks around cool displays. Our friends got some pictures of us on the ride, and we got some pictures of the things you can see.
Elena kept talking about the "monkey ride", since it's a monkey that sets everything in motion and keeps showing up in the various rooms.
After the ride, we found a partial solution to staying cool while outside, an individual mister fan.
We walked through Toy Story Land pretty quickly,
because we wanted to get back to Main Street for the 3pm parade. We made it with plenty of time to get some good seats. It was a short parade, but great for Elena who was super excited to see all her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse friends in Halloween gear.
After the parade we did a little bit of shopping on Main Street before heading back to the hotel to check in. Elena was getting fussy, but I knew she wouldn't take a nap, so I got her a Mickey Mouse to cuddle for quiet time. It was a hit.
She even allowed Mickey to share her water.
While I was checking us in, the girls discovered a television in the lobby playing old Mickey Mouse cartoons. They were mesmerized.
Jeff was keeping an eye on them, and he saw Stitch coming up to visit the kids watching TV. He told me later that Stitch snuck up behind Elena and then surprised her. She, apparently, was terrified. Poor kid. She was a little freaked out by Mickey Mouse, but at least she knows who he is. She's never seen Lilo and Stitch. Vivian, on the other hand, was all about the photo op, big surprise.
After we got checked in and settled into our room, we headed back down for the hotel's buffet dinner. They offered a discount for hotel guests, but I probably would have paid full price. It was a GREAT spread of both Asian and western food. Plus, the service was fantastic, which is typical Disney, but not typical Asia, so that was a treat. Elena is in her phase of eating anything fried, so long as she gets it with ketchup, so she had fried shrimp for dinner, along with Mickey carrots. I took a picture to send to Young, who I figured would get a kick out of Elena's dinner.
For dessert, Elena devoured Mickey shaped sugar cookies, while Vivian went more of a Star Wars route.
Once we were fueled up, we headed back to the park for night time fun and just caught the end of the villains' parade.
Then we headed over to Tomorrowland for rides on Hyperspace Mountain (now with Star Wars effects!) and other fun.
It worked out great, because the same two families who had been at the science museum the night before were over in Tomorrowland at the same time as us. The parents found seats where we could monitor the kids, and the kids buddied up to run through rides. At one point they were coming out of the exit for Hyperspace Mountain and just running back around to the entrance to go again. There were pretty much no lines at all. It was fun for everyone. We let them dash around until the announcement that it was time for the fireworks, and then we made our way back to the castle. I tried to get pictures of the fireworks, but it's a really tricky thing to photograph. It was wonderful to see though, and it was a great end to our Disney day.
The next morning we were at the breakfast buffet, with Mickey holding court in the the photo op area again. Elena made it very clear that she did not want to try for a picture, so we just ate our breakfast and then headed back up to the room so that the girls could put on their Halloween costumes and get some cute photos near the Mickey statue instead.
Then I packed us up, and we went down to the lobby to wait for our friends, so that we could all head back to the park together.
When we came into the park there was a fun brass band playing on Main Street.
Then we got a good family picture in front of the castle.
We went through the castle, and Elena wanted to see "the elephant". She hasn't seen Dumbo, because it makes me cry, and I can't watch it, but she loves all E for elephants.
I took her on the ride too, which she enjoyed, but she's so small that you can't see her in the pictures when the elephant is up in the air. After Dumbo, we continued with the kiddie friendly theme by going on the Winnie the Pooh ride. Those characters are ones that I still love from my childhood.
For that ride, we got into a honey pot and went through the Hundred Acre Wood, experiencing the blustery day and floating along in the river surging after the rain. I loved it, and I think the girls enjoyed it too. Vivian was fully decked out in her new purchases. The Avengers cap is particularly cool, because it has sunglasses that flip down from the brim. Both days her t-shirts got covered in the villain stickers that you could collect throughout the park. The employees kept giving them to Elena too, even though she kept saying no thank you. I just held on to them until Vivian lost one of hers, and then used Elena's as a replacement ;-)
We had rented a stroller for Elena from the park, and when she went on rides, we left it at the stroller parking. They put the kids' names on the strollers, so that you don't grab someone else's after a ride, and I got a kick out of "Elena" being surrounded by names in other characters, so Jeff took a picture for me.
While we were in that part of the park we also visited the miniature versions of all the fairy tale castles. I liked the Beast's and Ariel's the best.
Then we headed back to Toy Story Land where the big kids and some grownups did the parachute drop and the slinky dog ride.
We also took an ice cream break.
I got my turn on the Grizzly Gulch coaster with Viv, and we did the Mystic Manor one more time. Then, we went back over to Tomorrowland for more Hyperspace Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. While I was waiting on roller coaster riders with Elena and other parents, we had a storm trooper sighting.
They were saying, "Move aside. No pictures." But they were also walking slowly enough that you could take pictures as they walked by. It's funny, but even though I knew they were entertainment, a life time of watching Star Wars movies made me tense up at the sight of storm troopers.
We hung out at the park a bit longer, did a little more shopping, and then headed back to the hotel for another wonderful buffet dinner and a taxi to the airport. We decided that the girls' first Disney park experience was a great success, and even though Halloween was cancelled in Thailand, this year's Disney Halloween will be one to remember.
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